People are beset by the need to carry a number of small items of personal property with them, without a functional means to allow quick access and easy use. For example, eye glasses are typically held in an eye-glass holder, a box-like device that envelops the glasses, and can be worn on a belt or carried in a handbag. In order to use the glasses, however, the holder must be located, opened, and the glasses removed. Thus, access to glasses held in such a holder is restricted, and delayed.
For easier access, other holders have been observed that have a clipping or other arrangement for attaching glasses to varies surfaces, including, for example, the visor of an automobile. Such clipping assemblies, however, still leave the glasses and items of personal property out of reach of the ordinary user, unless the user is near the surface to which the clip is attached.
To overcome such problems, various mechanisms have been developed, including chains and flexible material that attach to the rearward portions of the temple sidepieces, proximate to the ear members, and are then draped about the neck. By way of advantage, these devices render glasses in easy reach. Such chains have a number of recognizable drawbacks, however. For instance, they create a generally unsightly appearance, in that such chained assemblies are typically associated with elderly people, and otherwise lack in finesse or beneficial appearance. Of greater concern is that the fact that such chained assemblies render the internal surfaces of the glasses essentially perpendicular to the body, and thus provide a safe haven or table upon which food and other material can collect, thereby obscuring the vision and requiring periodic cleaning. Additionally, such devices lack the protection afforded by the hard cases, and thus are susceptible to damage from exercise, as well as from typical human hugging contact. As a result, the hinging location of temple sidepieces to frames are rendered liable to bending or breaking.
Ornamental designs have been considered for eyeglass holders to avoid the unsightly nature of the chained assemblies, and the lack of easy access provided by cases. For example, U.S. Pat. No. Design 334,533 appears to show a design that can be attached to a vertical object for simplifying access to glasses. U.S. Pat. No. Design 350,436 shows another style of design.
Functional devices that demonstrate the need in the industry for a solution to the aforementioned problems, have also been observed. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,319,838 to Eppenauer appears to take advantage of the ability to hang glasses by way of the juncture or hinge between the temple side piece and the frame. Yet, Eppenauer makes no effort to avoid the slippage of such hanging that may occur when the person using the device, attached as a broach to a garment, bends over. Indeed, in Eppenauer's device, the glasses will slip out of the holder when the person is in such a position. Moreover, Eppenauer's device provides insufficient restriction against torsional movement of the device as the glasses slide within the confines of the loop provided, because the attachment to prevent such movement is a simple clip against the garment. It should be observed that the additional downward projection in Eppenauer (item 140) merely provides for attachment of an identification badge. Moreover, Eppenauer's device will provide wear of the garment, as slippage occurs. Thus, Eppenauer identifies the problems associated with eyeglass retainment in lieu of chains and cases, but does not go any significant distance in solving those problems.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,699,990 to Seach shows another system for maintaining glasses vertically, in a folded position, but is directed to allowing the assembly to be hung from a plurality of locations in a vehicle. Should the user of Seach's device leave the vehicle, then his device no longer provides any value as a retaining means for the glasses which must otherwise be carried by other means.
Another vertical folded carrying mechanism is shown by U.S. Pat. No. 5,845,369 to Dunchock, in which glasses are suspended in a container or bag 13, and attached by a fairly standard pin assembly to an article of clothing. While the bag will prevent the glasses from slipping from the holder, stress upon the garment is certain to occur. Moreover, in the absence of a suitable gannent (e.g., when a person is at the beach or is otherwise without a shirt), there is limited ability to engage the device.
Accordingly, it is an object of the instant invention to provide a mechanism for engagement of glasses or other items of personal property that are routinely carried about, in a manner that provides simple access, but does not present a risk of platform-attraction of food or damage.
It is yet another object of the instant invention to provide a mechanism for removeably holding eye glasses in a vertical, folded manner, without slippage, with greater stability and minimized torsional and rotational movement, and with easy access.
It is a further object of the instant invention to provide a mechanism for holding glasses that provides for resilient, compressable clutching of the glasses.
It is still a further object of the instant invention to provide simple, guided access for maneuvering the temple side piece of a pair of glass for proper hanging alignment.
It is yet a still further object of the instant invention to provide an ergonomically attractive device for removeable engagement of items of personal property, by, among other things, hanging the device from a chain about the neck.